Soviet Union

The Cold War

After World War II, the Soviet Union and its Western allies
soon parted ways as mutual suspicions of the other's intentions and
actions flourished. Eager to consolidate influence over a number of
countries near the Soviet Union, Stalin pursued aggressive policies
after World War II that provoked strong Western
reaction. The United States worked to contain Soviet expansion in
this period of international relations that has come to be known as
the Cold War.

Mindful of the numerous invasions of Russia and the Soviet
Union from the West throughout history, Stalin sought to create a
buffer zone of subservient East European countries, most of which
the Red Army (known as the Soviet army after 1946) had occupied in
the course of the war. Taking advantage of its military occupation
of these countries, the Soviet Union actively assisted local
communist parties in coming to power. By 1948 seven East European
countries had communist governments. The Soviet Union initially
maintained control behind the "iron curtain" (to use Churchill's
phrase) through troops, security police, and its diplomatic
service. Unequal trade agreements with the East European countries
permitted the Soviet Union access to valued resources.

Soviet actions in Eastern Europe helped produce Western
hostility toward their former ally, but the Western powers could do
nothing to halt consolidation of Soviet authority in that region
short of going to war. However, the United States and its allies
had greater success in halting Soviet expansion in areas where
Soviet influence was more tenuous. British and American diplomatic
support for Iran forced the Soviet Union to withdraw its troops
from the northeastern part of that country in 1946. Soviet efforts
to acquire territory from Turkey and establish a communist
government in Greece were stymied when the United States extended
military and economic support to those countries under the Truman
Doctrine in 1947. Later that year, the United States introduced the
Marshall Plan for the economic recovery of other countries of
Europe. The Soviet Union forbade the countries it dominated from
taking part in the program, and the Marshall Plan contributed to
reducing Soviet influence in the participating West European
nations.

Tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union became
especially strained over the issue of Germany. At the Potsdam
Conference of July-August 1945, the Allied Powers confirmed their
decision to divide Germany and the city of Berlin into zones of
occupation (with the eastern sectors placed under Soviet
administration) until such time as the Allies would permit Germany
to establish a central government. Disagreements between the Soviet
Union and the Western Allies soon arose over their respective
occupation policies and the matter of reparations. In June 1948,
the Soviet Union cut off the West's land access to the American,
British, and French sectors of Berlin in retaliation for steps
taken by the United States and Britain to unite Germany. Britain
and the United States thereupon sponsored an airlift to keep the
beleaguered sectors provisioned until the Soviet Union lifted the
blockade in May 1949. Following the Berlin blockade, the West and
the Soviet Union divided Germany into two countries, one oriented
to the West, the other to the East. The crisis also provided the
catalyst for the Western countries in 1949 to form the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a collective security system
designed to use conventional armies and nuclear weapons to offset
Soviet forces.

While the Soviet Union gained a new satellite nation in the
German Democratic Republic (East Germany), it lost its influence in
Yugoslavia. The local communists in Yugoslavia had come into power
without Soviet assistance, and their leader, Josip Broz Tito,
refused to subordinate the country to Stalin's control. Tito's
defiance led the Communist Information Bureau (Cominform--founded
in 1947 to partially replace the Comintern, which had been
abolished in 1943) to expel the Yugoslav party from the
international communist movement in 1948. To guard against the rise
of other independent leaders, Stalin purged many of the chief
communists in other East European states.

In Asia, the Chinese Communists, headed by Mao Zedong and
assisted by the Soviet Union, achieved victory over the
Nationalists in 1949. Several months afterward, in 1950, China and
the Soviet Union concluded a mutual defense treaty against Japan
and the United States. Hard negotiations over concessions and aid
between the two communist countries served as an indication that
China, with its independent party and enormous population, would
not become a Soviet satellite, although for a time their relations
appeared particularly close. Elsewhere in Asia, the Soviet Union
pursued a vigorous policy of support for national liberation
movements, especially in Malaya and Indochina, which were still
colonies of Britain and France, respectively. Thinking that the
West would not defend the Republic of Korea (South Korea), Stalin
allowed or encouraged the Soviet-equipped forces of the Democratic
People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) to invade South Korea in
1950. But forces from the United States and other members of the
United Nations came to the aid of South Korea, leading China to
intervene militarily on behalf of North Korea, probably on Soviet
instigation. Although the Soviet Union avoided direct participation
in the conflict (which would end in 1953), the Korean War inspired
the United States to strengthen its military capability and to
conclude a peace treaty and security pact with Japan. Chinese
participation in the war also strengthened China's independent
position in relation to the Soviet Union.